Soul Eater Stein: Burning Jealousy
by Lady Death of Nevada
Summary: A little story I thought of. Cuz I just have this feeling in the pit of my stomach that Marie is going to adopt Crona. And of course, Kuriyami doesn't cope well with change. A little light cursing.


Jealousy ran through me like madness did my father. I felt like a guest in my own home...er, lab. But it was probably only since I was just so used to a life of solitude, me and daddy and no one else but the occasional Spirit. Emphasis on occasional.

Marie, my mother, had moved in with us months ago. She didn't know she was my mother, but she had an extreme craving to be someone's. It was easy to tell that her preference would be to be someone's mother with Dr. Franken Stein. My dad. So she'd already accomplished her dream, but the only thing that Daddy stressed more than the fact that dissection was **not **a sadistic hobby was that Marie was never to find this out. I sometimes wanted to murder my father for this rule. Because, there was in fact someone who severely needed mothering. And unfortunately, Marie realized this.

His name was Crona. I scared little boy with a twisted witch of a mother (literally) who Maka had saved and had been accepted into the DWMA. At the same time that Marie came. I could tell she'd taken a liking to him, but she didn't act on it for quite a while. I adored those first few months. Daddy had wanted me to know my mother, and since she loved him, she acted like a mother without knowing why Daddy so desperately wanted her to. We were almost like a little family.

But apparently I wasn't enough for her. Marie invited Crona to live with us, against Daddy's wishes. It had been fun at first. Kid was also making an effort to help Crona, we all were, so whenever he'd come over (so basically every day) we'd play with him and make him feel wanted and welcomed. But then Marie started to treat Crona more like a son. And since Daddy loved Marie, he supported and helped her all the way. And I tried to act like a nice sister; it wasn't very hard. But suddenly it wasn't just Daddy and me. There were many more people, and Daddy wasn't always there as he had been. I almost felt like he didn't want me anymore.

And it hit the limit one afternoon. I'd been over at Kid's house all day and he'd given me a ride home on Beelzebub (I love Beelzebub. The thing is just so damn awesome) and after I'd kissed him goodbye and he'd flown away I'd gone to the heavy Lab doors and pushed them open, creaking all the way. I walked in to see Daddy, Marie, and Crona sitting on Marie's neon pink sofas, laughing and talking. Daddy was genuinely smiling. The last time I'd seen that smile had been… well that was the thing. I couldn't remember. And no one even acknowledged my measly existence. I ran up to my room, locking the door behind me as shimmering tears began to fall down my face.

I just laid there and cried, feeling as if I had no purpose in the world. My purpose had always been to make sure Daddy was safe and to make him smile. But someone had replaced me. I looked up and around my room at the countless pictures scattered on my stitched and splatter painted walls through foggy eyes. A picture of Spirit and me doing the Charlie's Angels pose, Maka, Soul and me on a roller coaster, Liz, Patty and me looking like idiots, an earlier picture of Justin and me from when I'd been 6 and he'd been 13, countless pictures of Kid and me, Spirit holding me on his shoulders when I was a toddler, loads of photos from when Daddy and me had tested the new camera, and a group shot of Black Star, Tsubaki, Maka, Soul, Liz, Patty, Kid, and me just to name a few. And then there were the ones that made me cry harder, some so precious to me that they lay framed on my bureau.

Spirit holding Maka and me when we were four, me and Kid sharing our first kiss, Soul and I dancing (we were the best dancers in the DWMA), Daddy, Marie and me from when I'd just been born, right before Daddy had altered her memory, removing me from it. And Daddy and me smiling together. Doing our soul wavelength thing together. Him holding me as a scythe while we were in soul resonance. My 1st birthday party, exclusively for us. Me in a highchair with a cupcake he'd somehow managed to make with him next to me. Us dancing together. And countless others.

BANG BANG

"Kuriyami, are you okay in there?" Daddy's muffled voice came through the door.

"J-j-just go!" I cried. He knocked harder.

"Kuriyami, unlock the door," He demanded.

"Just go and be with your family. I'm sure they miss you!" I snapped back. I heard a shuffling and then the door swung open, exposing Daddy with a scalpel he must've used to pick the lock. He closed the door behind him, relocking it, and sat down next to me.

"Kuriyami what are you moaning over?" He asked. I just turned the other way and stuck my head under a big fluff ball that qualified as a pillow.

"I told you I didn't want to talk!" I sniffled.

"I know you, Kuriyami. Whenever you say you don't want to talk, it's just because you want to see if the person cares enough to stay by your side until they've bugged you enough for you to tell them," He replied. I looked up from under my pillow at him with a runny nose, tearstained face, and bloodshot eyes. I scooted over closer to him.

"You don't want me," I said, and Daddy made the most shocked face I'd ever seen.

"You're really stupid, Kuriyami," He chuckled, making me punch him square in the shoulder.

"No I'm not. Why would you want a mistake like me anyways?" I sighed. Daddy's face filled with rage.

"You were not a mistake-"

"Right. You and Marie just wanted more than anything to have an illegitimate child at the age of 17. And that's why it's such a taboo topic in this house, since it's so precious that bringing it up would cause tears of joy to come running down everyone's faces like broken leaky faucets that will remain that way because the damn plumber won't come and-"

"Kuriyami!" Daddy ended my rambling, "You know where I'd be right now without you? Dead in front of a computer, dead in front of an experiment, killed by lung cancer, killed by malnutrition, or just dead. Or maybe, I'd just be a bag of sulking insane bones with no point in life. I love you and couldn't ever imagine life without you!"

"Then why have you forgotten about me and replaced me with Crona?" I insisted, tears running down my pale face. Daddy pulled me close to him so that as I was hiccupping, choking on my tears and crying my eyes out his familiar stench of dead things, cigarette smoke, and insanity would comfort me. And it did.

"I'm sorry that you feel that way, but can I ask you something?" He spoke as I leaned away and nodded slightly, "You're always saying how your only wish is for Marie and me to get married so we could be a real family and we wouldn't have to keep secrets from her. But I know you're not a complete idiot, so you know what marriage leads to, and how that leads to kids. If you feel this way about Crona who isn't even related to us in any way, then how do you expect to act with a little brother or sister?" He questioned.

I looked down at my feet, seeing his reasoning.

"I'm sorry." I finally replied as he took off his lab coat and wrapped me in it, handing me a hankie to wipe my face with. He hugged me and kissed the top of my head.

"It's okay," He soothed, "Now let's go downstairs before Marie has a heart attack. She was really worried about you." Right on cue, someone called upstairs,

"Stein? Kuriyami? Are you guys alright?" He smiled and walked me out the door.

"Be prepared," He whispered in my ear. Before I even had time to be confused, Marie was squeezing the life out of my, squealing,

"Oh Kuriyami! What was wrong! I heard you crying and it broke my heart! Are you okay? Did Kid break up with you? Don't worry, men are bastards," and such until I finally smiled and reassured her.

I finally felt like a part of our little family.


End file.
